LA Zoo's California Condors Are Part Of A New Vaccine Trial

California condors at the Los Angeles Zoo have been given a new vaccine for the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, otherwise known as bird flu. Wildlife officials expect the emergency-use vaccine to partially protect the critically endangered birds from the deadly virus.

Vaccine Trial

The vaccine trial was launched after an avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak was found in a free flying condor flock in Arizona earlier this year. Twenty one condors died, which is almost 10% of the area’s population.

Ashleigh Blackford, the California condor coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the virus has been showing up across the country, including in California, which could put the whole species at risk.

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In 1982, there were only 22 condors in the wild, but the species started making a comeback with help from the California Condor Recovery Program. In 2004, the program celebrated the first successful condor chick hatched in the wild. Four years later, it reached another milestone with there being more condors flying free than in captivity for the first time in decades.

There are now more than 300 condors in the wild.

Vaccine Background

HPAI vaccines have already been developed for the poultry population, but the treatment is not used in the United States. The Fish and Wildlife Service received an emergency-use authorization this year for a vaccine trial on specific species of wild birds.

The trial started with 20 black vultures who worked as a surrogate species. Once it was clear the vaccine would be safe for the critically endangered condors, the trial spread to 25 captive birds spread out across the L.A. Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, and the Oregon Zoo. Of those 25 condors, 10 were given two doses of the .5 ml vaccine, 10 were given a single 1 ml dose of the vaccine, and five condors were the control group.

The actual testing portion of the trial has been completed, and they are now keeping a close eye on the condors.

“I'm going to call them respectable results,” Blackford said. “We are seeing an immune response that we expect to provide partial protection against mortality for 60% of the condors that we vaccinated.”

Blackford said while all of the birds didn’t have the immune response they were hoping for, the vaccine could be another tool that will help the species recover.

What's next

Based on the early data from the vaccine trial, wildlife officials will be vaccinating the California condors that are going to be released into the wild over the next few months.

Blackford said they still want to keep evaluating the trial results before officials make a decision for all of the condors in captive care, and the ones in the wild.

“When these naturally occurring threats happen in the wild and take out 10% of the birds in a single month, that’s a big setback for us,” she said. “Having a vaccine just gives us one more tool to help us keep moving the program forward.”